Students who wish to inspect and review their records should submit a written request to the record custodian or to the FERPA Coordinator. The request should identify as accurately as possible the specific records the student wishes to inspect and review. It may identify records according to the types listed in this policy under “Types of Education Records,” as records located at specific places, or as records under the custodianship of specific College officials identified by title. Records listed in this policy as “Occasional Records” should be identified in terms that will make it possible for the FERPA Coordinator to locate them and make them available for the student to inspect and review.

If it is mutually convenient, the record custodian or the FERPA Coordinator will allow the student to inspect the record at once. If the student cannot inspect the records immediately, the official responsible for responding to the request will discuss with the student the possible arrangements for the inspection. This discussion will deal with items such as place, time, records security, whether the inspection should be at a single location or arranged at several locations, and whether the student will need a resource person to explain certain records.

The FERPA Coordinator or the record custodian will make the needed arrangements and advise the student when and where the records will be available. The procedure will be completed as promptly as possible; but, in all cases, the student will be permitted to inspect the record within 45 calendar days after the custodian or FERPA Coordinator receives the student’s request. If, for any valid reason such as work hours, distance from a student’s place of residence to a record location, distance between record location sites, or health, a student cannot personally inspect and review his/her education record, Sinclair Community College will arrange for the student to obtain copies of the record. See Section VII for information regarding fees for copies of records. When a record contains personally identifiable information about more than one student, a student may inspect only the information that relates to him/her.

Sinclair Community College reserves the right to refuse to permit a student to inspect and review the following education records:

1. The financial statement of the student’s parents.

2. Statements and letters of recommendation prepared by Sinclair Community College officials or submitted with the student’s application for admission that were placed in the student’s records before January 1, 1975 or for which the student has waived his/her right of access in writing. If, however, these statements and letters have been used for any purpose other than that for which they were originally prepared, the student may inspect and review them.

3. Those records that are excluded from the FERPA definition of education records.